PHOTOS
September 16, 2026
Celebrating “What Holds Us” on iPhone 18 Pro
Curated by Kathy Ryan, a new photography exhibition showcases the full range of creative capabilities unlocked by the most advanced iPhone camera system yet
Moments of touch, gaze, care, and shared experience — these are the core facets of “What Holds Us,” a new photography exhibition that showcases original work shot exclusively on the brand-new iPhone 18 Pro. Exploring the people, places, and ideas that connect and ground humanity, artists Alex Prager, Jack Davison, and Jimmy Chin captured images that speak to presence as both a state of mind and a way of being.
“The theme holds a mirror to our increasingly fragmented world,” explains Kathy Ryan, the exhibition’s curator and the former longtime director of photography for The New York Times Magazine. “Rather than adding to this tension, ‘What Holds Us’ is a showcase of the limitless possibilities that emerge when three extraordinary artists are given the creative space to explore the idea of what connects us, using this incredible tool.”
Selected for distinct points of view and artistic obsessions, Prager, Davison, and Chin tapped into the full range of creative possibilities unlocked by the best iPhone camera system yet. Featuring variable aperture for the first time, iPhone 18 Pro offers better-quality low-light photography, crisper details, and even more creative control, setting the stage for the unique shots on display in the exhibition.
“What makes iPhone such a compelling creative tool is its immediacy — it puts the ability to see, experiment, and create directly into everyone’s hands,” Ryan says. “Seeing what Alex, Jack, and Jimmy are able to create with a device we all carry every day challenges our ideas of what photography can be and shows us how it can remain true to the original values of the craft while embracing new tools and possibilities.”
While the three artists have practices that are incredibly unique, they all share the remarkable ability to elicit something deeply human, Ryan explains: “Together, their work offers three very different perspectives on what connects us, while also demonstrating what’s possible when artists push the boundaries of their imagination — and technology rises to the occasion to make it possible.”
To celebrate “What Holds Us” — which opens this Friday, September 18, in New York City — the artists spoke about the evolving language of visual storytelling, the meaning of connection, and how iPhone contributed to their creative processes.
Jimmy Chin
High amid the powder-dusted peaks of the Bugaboos in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, earlier this summer, Chin was in his natural element shooting a series of visually arresting photos that explore trust and connection in one of the world’s most extreme environments.
“I’ve always been interested in human passion and meaning, and where that intersects with the raw beauty of wild landscapes,” explains Chin, a mountain climber, adventure photographer, and Academy Award-winning filmmaker whose work has taken him all over the world. “When you spend a lot of time in these places, you start to look at things differently. You start to see the details.”
Through a series of tight close-ups, sweeping aerial vistas, and adrenaline-activating action shots captured on iPhone 18 Pro, Chin sought to impart the sheer scale of the mountain range and those who have been shaped by it. That includes legendary climber Conrad Anker, who is featured throughout Chin’s images and appears as the sole tiny figure at the center of an immense panoramic shot that anchors his work for the show.
Shooting high in the mountains where winds roared at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, Chin and his crew relied on iPhone 18 Pro, which unlocked maximum flexibility for their work. “It’s a testament to the iPhone’s functionality, but also to how technology can remove barriers to creativity and make previously impossible images possible,” Ryan says.
Shooting high in the mountains where winds roared at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, Chin and his crew relied on iPhone 18 Pro, which unlocked maximum flexibility for their work. “It’s a testament to the iPhone’s functionality, but also to how technology can remove barriers to creativity and make previously impossible images possible,” Ryan says.
Shooting high in the mountains where winds roared at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, Chin and his crew relied on iPhone 18 Pro, which unlocked maximum flexibility for their work. “It’s a testament to the iPhone’s functionality, but also to how technology can remove barriers to creativity and make previously impossible images possible,” Ryan says.
“The resolution and the sharpness on iPhone 18 Pro surprised me,” says Chin. “I could shoot a few inches of rock and ice, or a massive panorama, and trust it would hold at size. That is what this work needed. It also meant I carried almost nothing. In the mountains, everything you carry is a decision. I was not thinking about gear. I was thinking about what was in front of me.”
“Given the difficulty of reaching such heights amid 70-mile-per-hour winds with traditional equipment, it was essential for Jimmy to be able to work with the minimal equipment and maximum flexibility that iPhone gave him,” Ryan echoes. “It’s a testament to iPhone’s functionality, but also to how technology can remove barriers to creativity and make previously impossible images possible.”
Jack Davison
As he began to develop his own take on the exhibition’s theme, there was one visual Davison couldn’t get out of his head: the image of human hands interacting with clay.
“Through this project, I wanted to celebrate the relationship between clay and people: its physicality, texture, and surreality as a sculptural form,” says Davison, a celebrated portrait photographer and director who’s known for his signature chiaroscuro of strong blacks and whites. “I wanted to make something that felt very grounded, sensual, and messy — something that could only be crafted by human touch.”
Davison’s intimate images are startlingly tactile and visceral, featuring an array of subjects the artist directed as they played with clay and chalk. Some of the photos’ subjects smeared clay on themselves and became human sculptures, while others left fingerprints and tracings of their interventions.
In the studio — a former sugar warehouse in London — iPhone 18 Pro unlocked new possibilities for connection with his subjects. “The relationship is more personal because you’re not bringing something in front of your face — you’re holding it lower, maintaining eye contact,” Davison explains. “You’re still able to hold that personal connection.”
“I genuinely was blown away by the camera on iPhone 18 Pro,” he continues. “There was something about the quality of the imagery that felt like a huge leap. Not just from a technical standpoint, but in its ability to create more artistic and surreal images. That really surprised me. The ability to switch between lenses, use slower shutters, and shoot RAW made it such a potent package.”
Alex Prager
Though she’s no stranger to staging kinetic, kaleidoscopic crowd scenes, Prager knew there was something different about the exuberant, color-drenched images she was capturing on set with iPhone 18 Pro.
Alternating between a bird’s-eye view to capture the illusion of a seemingly continuous crowd and tighter, more granular images to home in on the interiority of the subjects within it, Prager let the phone’s camera system help guide where she took the work.
“Photography has changed a lot, and this particular camera is more like a video stream, in essence, which also shapes how we approach images today — more like video with higher output in our photo albums and on social media,” explains Prager. “It was exciting for me to think about all of this while harking back to a timeless crowd winding down from a celebration.”
Whirling with people, Prager’s soaring installation draws viewers in, almost as if they’re caught in its action. “There’s a sense that we are not seeing singular captured moments in her work — instead, we are watching the scene unfold,” Ryan says. “We are watching the seconds before and after. We are neither here nor there. There seems to be a party going on, and it seems that the party has just ended. There is an implied narrative, but it is just out of reach.”
“Alex’s method of working definitely challenged the new iPhone, but it rose to the occasion,” Ryan continues. “She was able to take advantage of iPhone’s ease of use and adaptability while also maintaining the high production values seen on a major film set.”
“What Holds Us” will be on display in New York City from September 18 to 20, and over the coming months, the exhibition will travel to London and Shanghai.
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